Road map begins with google, hit with a multibillion dollar fine from the eu, saying the company abused its search dominance. Plus, sprint is working with charter and comcast on a wireless sharing agreement what that means and the implications for any potential merger between sprint and tmobile coming up on the show, a live and exclusive interview with the ceo of kroger. Stock was hit hard this is the first time were hearing from the countrys biggest grosser about what the future holds for the entire Industry First up this morning, eu antitrust regulators hitting google with a record fine. Commissioner vesta gechlt r tweeted google gave illegal advantage to own Comparison Shopping service by abusing its search dominance t must stop and pay fine of 2. 4 billion euros. Commissioner vestager will be a guest in the next hour for its part, google says they respectfully disagree and will consider the option they have for an appeal, sara. Seven years in the making it was a longrunning probe. Eyepopping numbers, 2. 7 billion more than most people anticipated. The eu could have gone even further and fined up to 10 of total revenues, a fine like 10 billion from google. Still, this is a big deal. The other question well ask commissioner vestager about is how google addresses it. Its sort of left up to them how they want to deal with this. But it gets into their Business Model of posting ads on their Shopping Services. Google will argue, look, we have to compete with amazon, ebay and a lot of other competitors in this space and this is part of what we do we actually improved the quality a lot. But the eu goes after u. S. Technology companies and this is only going to fuel that political fire even more. She said europe is open for business were just dealing with anticompetitive behavior, but after apples 14 billion fine in back taxes and now this, shes inviting a lot of political bundling is the issue and they dont like the fact that youre packaging these Services Together google always has said with some legitimacy that people are often looking for ads when theyre searching on google. Its not as if they want some kind of they want the take me to the business that will give me what i want the dollar amount is not crippling. Its a big number but its a matter of it doesnt just go away business practice is being crimped. What does google have in cash 90 billion they do 30 billion a year in net income. 35 in quarter revenue, right . Exactly the stock is moving a lot more on just the general mega cap tech move. The pullback yesterday, year to date its been lockstep with amazon fundamental basis that people are much more excited about 1. 5 billion youtube users. But does it globally crimp business are there implications for travel, maps or something beyond search exactly in other words, they want to be the gateway to everything. And this would definitely limit that. Or are there implications for amazon and other Big Cap Technology firms its no secret that the u. S. Has been beating europe in terms of its firms at this game and she is taking a pretty hard line approach the question is, does it open a new front in this sort of rising protectionist environment in a trade war . The Trump Administration has appointees that are pro business they had a bunch of tech executives meeting at the white house. Its interesting to see whether theres any response verbally or even through actions were already monitoring the Commerce Department every day to find out the kind of anointed handful of Tech Companies are going through adjacent areas, looking for ways. Well talk more about fang. In the meantime not the only big tnt story weve got today. One thats out there, wall street journal reporting last night about exclusive talks taking place between comcast and charter and sprint and i can confirm that that is the case now, dont forget, charter and comca comcast, our Parent Company, only last night announced their intent to Work Together when it came to wireless wireless is all the talk when it comes to cable a lot of it will probably just end up being talk at this point. Now, talks are going on between comcast and charter with sprint but it is focused on what we call an mvno, mobile virtual operation agreement which regionally allows them to use verizons network to sign up cusses to add to their cable, if you want to call it, cable subscription why talk to sprint you may get a much better deal, first of all and judging, at least, from where the talks are, there is a bit more talk about sharing certain things that verizon might not have allowed you might get better pricing on any sort of a deal you put pressure on verizon to a certain extent well see if it does end in an mvno agreement between charter, comcast with sprint. It may people familiar with the situation have said theyre halfway through a 60day exclusive negotiating period to try to get something done. From sprints perspective, it doesnt necessarily hurt their chances of the big kahuna. That continues to be getting tmobile to agree to some sort of real deal that being a merger between those two companies. The synergys from which and cost efficiency from which are too large for either company to really ignore. Significant question there about antitrust as of now, of course, given this exclusive period thats been going on 30 days or so, these two companies are not talking. Dont expect they wont reengage at some point about a potential deal the question will be, can they actually get to the finish line and do both of them have a positive enough view on the antitrust implications that theyre willing to take that chance for now well see where things end up with comcast and charter. Let me specifically tell you the expectations that either one of these companies would take an equity stake in sprint are unlikely take a look at shares of pandora, im told that the ceo, as we expected, is out and thats going down. No word on, i dont believe, a replacement. Back to charter and sprint this does seem focused very much on getting an mvno done and it does not appear likely they would end up with a specific equity stake in sprint the idea that comcast or charter would want to own sprint outright is not something that anybody believes is the case at this point landscape can change two years from now, thing koss look very different. Comcast could make a very different decision when approaching its strategy when it comes to wireless. Right now, comcast doesnt seem very focused on, owning a wireless operator. I would argue, guys, theres a far higher likelihood not that its going to happen that comcast would rather buy charter itself, given its ownership of Time Warner Cable but that can change. 5g coming into the picture in a couple of years. Does it represent a shortterm threat to cable, with its ability to bring in a wireless signal into the home that is not related to your broad band connection yes. But its early days at this point. Well see. Getting some kind of agreement potentially here is a defensive move of lets have this as part of our offering, wireless feature in case down the road you can circumvent the broad band connection . Also it does enable them to market to their Customer Base with the quad play, so to speak. But the idea of really being up against a 5g offering from the likes of verizon, well see what that amounts to. Some would say its a short term problem for cable but longterm problem for wireless verizon tried to buy charter, and they did they negotiated. They tried they failed. They could never come to any sort of price agreement there. Charters ask is very high well see where all this goes. Are you shooting down the idea that charter and comcast could buy sprint outright . Yes thats just not something in the cards right now. Its not something that either one of them are expecting or talking about doing or, for that matter, tmobile again, the tmobile sprint deal is the most one that makes sense for them, if tmobile plays ball value tmobile very highly, they want to be very much compensated in a reverse breakup fee, if they were blocked for antitrust reasons and so they want their guy to run it, which i dont think will be a problem. Well see. The antitrust side of that is still a very difficult one and so sprint, at least, is giving itself other options here not that again, other options, at least, as it pursues its core business. And the other guys, you have to keep considering wireless overall but not as an ownership position despite what john malone might be musing about. Altese usa may want to be a player at some point. Without a doubt we talked about it when they went public last week but dont seem to be interested in wireless if you were ever to see the comca Comcast Charter deal theyre not talking about t just speculating here the vestitures that need to take place for that to happen altese usa would have to be the beneficiary. They could pick up millions of subs. As david mentioned earlier, Tim Westergren stepping down as drch ceo of Pandora Westergren no longer on the board, a question for some analysts, whether or not he would remain pandora announcing jason hirshorn to the board. Who becomes chairman of that company. Liberty sirius. Liberty with its significant equity into fusion has the right to three board seats, including chairman role. Respectfully chairman and ceo of sirius. How about tesla reports that tesla is considering launching its own streaming music service, which apparently some of the cell side today has no problem with, if you believe the car is turning into what they call the fourth screen. Fourth screen. If youre tesla and essentially think of software updates, its basically an operating system and were going to control every feature of the car. I dont know how you have an edge in assembling a streaming, you know, music or content platform tesla wants it to be tesla branded for tesla customers. Who do we talk to on closing bell doesnt make any sense, he says. You hear it a lot, though, the idea of it being a fourth screen why apple might be interested in the car. Takes the biggest block of time people have where theyre not in front of a screen. And not to mention sirius is talked about as potentially one day liberty, you know those guys, economic animals, being interested in interesting for that very reason to another acquirer who wants to follow that strategy. Nvidia, another partnership, this time with volvo theyve got partnerships with tesla and toyota all day yesterday was about managing rental car fleets whether it was apple or alphabet right . Six cars is enough to get hertz moving six car. In phoenix. Six cars in phoenix and a pile of short sales on the other side thats all it took. Well see what the exist e s existential threats are for pandora. The cfo and interim ceo was once an interim at ativo. Spencer stewart, as they often do, doing the ceo search if you want to put your name in the hat, feel free theyre looking for the new ceo. Meantime, top Washington News here. The white house warning syria against another chemical weapons attack and saying it has spotted activities that are, quote, similar to preparations the s r Syrian Government made before the april 4th attack our eamon javers is in washington with the latest. A rare and direct warning from the Trump White House to the Syrian Government, Bashir Al Assad regime, saying they spotted these potential preparations for another chemical attack like we saw earlier in the year that prompted a u. S. Missile response in this case, the white house saying this. They say, as we have previously stated the United States is in syria to eliminate the Islamic State of iraq and syria. If, however, mr. Assad conducts another mass murder attack using chemical weapons, he and his military will pay a heavy price. That message amplified by the u. S. Ambassador to the united nations, nikki haley last night, who issued this statement on twitter saying any further attacks done to the people of syria will be blamed on assad but also on russia and iran, who support him killing his own people now, that is the tricky situation here, because, remember, russia is also in syria, backing the assad regime. Theyve declared effectively a no fly zone west of the euphrates. The United States not really testing that nofly zone if the United States wants to engage in attacks on the assad regime they may have to. U. S. Pilots arent flying missions against russian pilots over syria, which could be a very tricky situation, indeed. Speaking of tricky situations, domestically, we saw the release of the Congressional Budget Office report yesterday that would say that 22 Million People would Lose Health Care under the Senate Health care bill. Thats going to make it a lot more difficult for the Senate Republicans to coalesce around that bill. At the eisenhower executive building they see a scenario if they can get this passed in the senate, they think they can avoid a messy negotiation. If it passes the senate, ted cruz will have had to have supported it if ted cruz supports it, does that get you the support of the House Freedom caucus the idea there being if they can squeak this thing through the senate this week, they might have the votes to get the House Freedom caucus on the house side on board that could avoid a messy conference negotiation where they bring those two bills together and haggle out the details. It could get the house side to simply pass the Senate Version of the bill and send it right to president trumps desk for a signature. This could be the whole ball game this week if they can get the votes they might be able to get this thing to the president for his signature. If not, not clear where this will go next, carl. That would be a massive legislative victory, eamon. It would. Well see what happens in the come iing days whats next for kroger after tumbling on the news of the amazon whole foods deal. Stay tuned for an interview with Rodney Mcmullen. Darden, under armour, gm and yellen talks at 1 00 pm eastern. At crowne plaza we know Business Travel isnt just business. Theres this. a bit of this. Why not . Your hotel should make it easy to do all the things you do. Which is what we do. Crowne plaza. Were all business, mostly. One of the big stories of the morning, pandora, off the initial premarket highs. Tim westergren leaving as ceo along with president mike herring. Well talk more outh aabt atnd a bunch of other names we havent talked about yet when squawk on street continues. Hey gary, whatd you got here . This bad boy is a mobile trading desk so that i can take my Trading Platform wherever i go. You know that thinkorswim seamlessly syncs across all your devices, right . Oh, so my custom studies will go with me . Anywhere you want to go the markets hot sync your platform on any device with thinkorswim. Only at Td Ameritrade just a few minutes before the opening bell as u. S. Markets end the first half of the trading year with some solid gains, imf is out with new reports, saying a comprehensive overhaul of policies is needed with ubs, bringing down their estimate this year and next, with the idea that perhaps the white house cant get done what they want to get done. I think thats a fear the market hasnt bought into that fear quite yet. They still think the agenda is a possibility i would suggest to you that perhaps the bigger story this morning is dragi, speaking in europe said the threat of deflation is dead, sparking an instant rally in the euro and raised yields in europe quite smartly and even here. Now everybody is going to hang very tightly on what janet yellen says at 1 00. September could bring about a taper in europe and a Balance Sheet draw here . Thats going to be interesting. Well, i personally dont think they do anything before the end of the year. And maybe not even then. But were going to wait and see. He tried to take some of that back a little bit when he said it isnt necessary to begin taking back some of the east quite yet. But nevertheless, the idea that deflation was not a threat was enough to push yields up and push the euro up. Art, dont go away. Well take a short break opening bell, after this just a few minutes from opening bell art cashin is with us. We just talked about dragis comments and what yellen might say after lunch. The bulls have the ball, techs need to regroup, you say, and theres some possibility of monthend buying. Its month end, quarter end and end of the half. People do have to put some things back in order the techs, in particular, need to regroup here, however the reversal yesterday was a bit ugly there were various rumors around it some even tried to attribute it to the Supreme Court allowing the president s travel ban to go in, that it might make it more difficult to get hib visas and people coming in its really up to the nasdaq and the teches to turn this around and then i think we can see new highs. If they fail to, then were in for a bit of trouble. Yesterday in that reversal, the biggest took 1 across the board. Seems right now, though, the banks picked up yesterday. Overall market continues to find a way to support itself. Its been remarkable, the rotations that have come in. Its not one day when theyre universally negative, the money flows from one spot to another. I think treasury has been a guiding light. That moved down to those bigger durable goods. I think the move down was based on continuing week data here in the United States. The gdp, the data that came out was nowhere near as good as it needs to be. Thats why what yellen says at 1 00 is important. Thanks. See you soon, art cashin big board this morning nuv